The present invention relates to a disposable diaper utilized for the absorption and containment of urine and other body excretions.
FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings is a perspective view of a conventional disposable diaper 50. The diaper 50 comprises a liquid-permeable topsheet 2, a liquid impermeable backsheet 3, a liquid-absorbent core 4 sandwiched therebetween, elastic members 51 provided along right and left side edges of a crotch zone destined to define right and left leg-openings, and elastic members 52 provided along longitudinally opposite ends of front and rear bodies which are destined to define a waist-opening. The rear body 6 is provided along transversely opposite side edges with tape fasteners 8 by which the rear body 6 is fastened to the front body 5. The crotch zone 7 is a longitudinally intermediate zone of said front and rear bodies.
One example of a conventional disposable diaper is disclosed in Japanese patent application Disclosure No. 1992-289201. Specifically, the diaper therein is a disposable diaper pants type diaper in which elastic members are attached to front and rear bodies over a wide extent so as to extend toward a waist line of the diaper and thereby these front and rear bodies are provided over the wide extent with elasticity.
When the conventional disposable diaper of FIG. 2 is worn, the side edges of the crotch zone destined to define the leg-openings and the longitudinally opposite ends destined to define the waist-opening come in close contact with the wearer's skin. However, portions of the front and rear bodies which are remote from the longitudinally opposite ends and closer to the crotch zone do not fit well making it difficult to rapidly absorb urine.
To solve such a problem, the technique has already been proposed, according to which suitable elastic material is used for a topsheet and/or a backsheet of the diaper. However, such material is relatively expensive and necessarily increases material cost.
The technique disclosed in Disclosure No. 1992-289201 intends to solve this problem by employing relatively inexpensive rubber threads. However, according to this technique, a plurality of rubber threads are transversely attached to the diaper to serve as an elastic waist member and plural rubber threads are attached to the diaper longitudinally thereof to elasticize the leg-openings. Attachment of the rubber threads to the diaper in these two directions requires two separate processes which both prolongs and increases production costs.
It a principal object of the invention to solve these prior art problems with an improved arrangement such that elastic members comprising inexpensive elastic thread members extend from respective leg-openings along a curved course over front and rear bodies so that the elastic member provided around the left leg-opening further extends to the right side edge of the waist-opening and the elastic member provided around the right leg-opening further extends to the left side edge of the waist-opening.